sometimes something old can sound new
or
something new can sound old
and
something new is always old to someone

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

The M-16's (Bands from Perth, Australia)

The M-16's were formed in Perth in the late 1990's by guitar maestro Ken "Killer" Watt (who had previously played in Valvolux and Asteroid B612) and bassist Brad Miller (who had played with Watt in Atom Smasher, the prototype band for The M-16's).

They jammed for a year or more and recorded some tracks with stand in drummer Brad Cleary (who had also played in Atom Smasher and is now playing in Superscope) until they eventually found a drummer in Adam Scuillo, who had previously played with fuzzed out rockers Fourstroke. The 3 piece band began gigging in September 2001 and recorded some more songs.

But the exploding drummer syndrome was to strike again as Scuillo moved east and the M-16's again had a “temporary” drummer with former Pb drummer Jamie Hamilton until Scuillo returned to Perth in late 2003.

In 2004 David 'Spiff' Hopkins, former lead guitarist with Sydney bands The Hellmen and The SC5 (a Sydney MC5 tribute band) joined the band, playing his first gig in June 2004 after only one rehearsal. I was lucky enough to be in Perth for this gig, and was later (jokingly) reminded and reprimanded for my drunken worshipping of this shit-hot performance.

The band released the 7" promo single, Losin’ Time in 2002, which received rave reviews from around the world. Limited to only 300 copies the single quickly sold out.

The M-16's debut CD Loose Bullets was released in June 2004 and they also contributed four tracks to Light The Fuse, with another four tracks from both the Volcanics and Fourstroke. A nice treat in this release is that each of the bands play a cover version of a favourite Perth band track (the M-16s cover The Victim’s Television Addict).

I’m heading home in late January and are very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends. But I have also heard that the M-16's and Volcanics will be playing a gig together, so I can see a long night of guitar and beer worship during the visit. I can only apologise to my wife, my friends and my family now.